Why does it display four of the same string in a row?

Methods were first devised as a way to put duplicate code that is used in multiple locations of a full project in one location and using an alias to execute that bit of code. Lets say you had 10 lines of code that retrieved data from the keyboard, did something with that data(being abstract here), then output a confirmation message. Now lets say that over 500 lines of code of the full project, this bit of code is used, in entirety, in 5 different locations. You could replace those 10 lines, in their 5 locations, with a method stub such as:

getUserInputAndOutputMessage();

and then move the 10 lines into one method. Whenever a method stub in code is reached, the processing moves to inside the method. In effect, you would save 40 lines of code in this example while making your overall project easier to read. On the method declaration you can use arguments inside the parentheses as ways to pass variable information to the method to use in its code. So when a method is declared such as: ... print(String s) The part underlined in parentheses is the method argument (or arguments as there can be as many as needed). When calling a method in code you MUST pass it the correct argument(s). You couldn't use this method like this:

print(5); // wrong argument, contains int but needs to be a String
print(); // wrong argument, contains none but needs to be a String

correct calls would be:

print("5"); // 5 is now a String and arg is correct
print("Java is fun!"); // correct String arg

So the conditions in this task say the method should print the arg 4 times. So whatever arg you pass to the method in code will be printed 4 times (as you have noticed). They are very powerful and extrememly important to understand. In OOP they are the primary way for classes to communicate with each other.